The world, the flesh and the devil are incapable of creating anything new.  All they can do is to deface and destroy God’s good gifts.  Sin is always modelled on what is right and good, but twisted in some way to take the glory away from God and the blessing away from human society.  Temptation is a set of lies convincing us that it is good to distort God's plan and go a different way.  The lie is that the different way will be good and better than God’s, and like Adam and Eve, we all believe it in some way or another (Genesis 3:1-7).

Even God's Word can be used by Satan to stimulate our sinfulness (Romans 7:7-8).  When we understand what is holy and precious to God, we can be tempted to use it as a way to get pleasure and glory for ourselves.  That is spiritually deadly and Jesus resisted it (Matthew 4:1-11).  The moment we use what is good to glorify ourselves, we have twisted God's design and perverted His righteousness.  It was a problem for King Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:16-21), and King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:28-37).

That certainly does not make reading the Bible wrong, but it reveals our intense evil capacity for perverting the truth.  We are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because our deep inner nature is sinful.  And so God's Spirit uses His Word to convict us of the darkness of our sinful nature and give us a hunger to be rescued from it, and saved (John 16:7-11).

It is difficult for respectable people to appreciate the depth of depravity that potentially lies within their own heart.  But as we read God's Word more, we find we are able to identify with the Apostle Paul who says, "For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." (Romans 7:18).  So, let's challenge ourselves about our motives. And ask those close to you for their honest opinion too!  They may well see attitudes and motivations to which we are blind.  Then repent of the perversions and ask God's help to follow His plan for the sake of His glory.